Jury selection started in capital murder case (Update)

WEST CHESTER – Jury selection began Wednesday in the death penalty trial for a man accused of the grisly murder of a Coatesville teenager, whose lifeless body was allegedly dismembered with a chainsaw after he was shot multiple times.

Because it is a capital case, the selection process is expected to last until the end of the week, as opposed to the normal process of picking a jury that lasts only a few hours, if that.

Common Pleas Court Judge William P. Mahon, who will preside over the two-week-long trial, told the prospective jurors that since the defendant, Laquanta Chapman, is charged with first-degree murder and faces the death penalty, it will be up to those chosen for the panel – 12 jurors and four alternates – to pronounce sentence on him if he is found guilty. Their choices will be life in prison without parole or death.

“There are no other alternatives,” Mahon said to the assembled panel in Courtroom One of the Chester County Justice Center, where the trial will take place.

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Chapman is accused of the 2008 death of 16-year-old Aaron “Head” Turner, whose body has never been found. Turner is alleged to have been killed sometime between Oct. 30, 2008, and Nov. 15, 2008, when police raided Chapman’s home and found him wearing a bullet proof vest and possessing several firearms. Drugs were strewn thoughout the house on Chester Avenue in Coatesville, police said.

Mahon was able to complete the mass questioning of the prospective jurors in the case, asking them general questions as to whether they had heard about the case, had ever been arrested themselves, knew a victim of a crime, and could judge a police officer’s testimony the same way they would other witnesses. Beginning Thursday, he will ask follow up questions to those who answered them in individual sessions out of the hearing of the entire pool.

When asked whether anyone had heard of the case involving a teenager being killed and dismembered with a chainsaw along with a pit bull, more than 20 people raised their hands. It is unknown what exactly they knew, and whether that will have an impact on their ability to judge the case impartially, however.

Earlier, each of the 124 potential jurors who appeared at the Justice Center was given a 14-page, 60-question questionnaire to complete.

In addition to asking biographical information about the potential jurors and their thoughts about juries and criminal cases, the questionnaires also asked more probing questions about the individual habits, thoughts and viewpoints of those filling them out.

Had they ever been a member of Mothers Against Drunk Diving or other organizations that have crime prevention as a goal? What TV news programs do they watch? What hobbies do they have, and what kind of books do they most enjoy reading? Have they ever had a bumper sticker on their car, and what did it say?

As importantly, the questionnaire also asked whether they had read anything about the Chapman case and whether the potential juror had come to a fixed opinion about his guilt or innocence.

As to the death penalty, the questionnaire posed a series of questions about whether those answering would be willing to serve on a jury that could consider the death penalty. It asked specifically whether they had any “moral, religious or conscientious objections” to the death penalty.

If the potential juror would answer yes to that question, they could be excluded from the jury pool for cause.

The questionnaire also listed 75 potential witnesses for the prosecution and the defense, including more than two dozen law enforcement officers, forensic experts, and the victim’s mother, Angeline Blaylock, and asked whether the respondents knew any of them. It noted, however, that the number of actual witnesses would be far fewer.

Although the process of selecting a jury is fairly dry and very serious for both the prosecution and the defense, there were a few moments of levity in Wednesday’s proceedings.

In asking the potential jurors whether they knew one of the prosecutors in the case, Assistant District Attorney Michelle Frei, Juror No. 72, a 40-ish man, rose to say he did. How did he know her, Mahon asked?

“She represented my wife at a hearing and tried to have me locked up,” the man responded, causing some laughter in the courtroom and an embarrassed smile from Frei. Would that cause him to be less than fair and impartial in hearing the case, Mahon asked?

“That’s a tough one,” the man said, before agreeing he would have difficulty.

One of the other members of the jury pool who knew members of the prosecution and defense team was an Internet technician employed by the Chester County Department of Computers and Information Services.

“He works on the geek squad,” Mahon quipped. “Anyone who reads the Computer Bible these days knows it’s not the meek who shall inherit the Earth, it’s the geeks.”

The prosecution is led by Chief Deputy District Attorney Patrick Carmody. Chapman is represented by defense attorneys Evan Kelly of West Chester and J. Michael Farrell of Philadelphia.

The selection process will continue Thursday.

Chapman, 33, of Coatesville is charged with first and third degree murder, aggravated assault, conspiracy, abuse of corpse, cruelty to animals, and multiple counts of drug and weapons offenses. He was charged with the murder in 2009, but has been in custody since November 2008, after police raided his home on Chester Avenue looking for evidence of Turner’s murder.